All That Matters
by Blue Rose 01
Summary: It takes a tragic event to show Sakura what really matters. NejiSaku Oneshot


**All that matters**

Sumary: It takes a tragic event to show Sakura what really matters. NejiSaku

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me, it belongs to Masahashi Kishimoto.

_Enjoy(:_

-

The sound of heels clacking against the pristine white floors penetrated eerie silence of Konoha's hospital. Haruno Sakura walked swiftly down the hallways, eager to get to her patient, Hanabusa Mitsuru's room to write a synopsis on his condition so she could call it a day and go home. She was excited to finally get home to her husband, Hyuuga Neji, captain of the most efficient ANBU team in Konoha. Being the head medic at the hospital, it was hard for her to find time off for Neji, and it was the same for him. They both held important positions that didn't allow for much free choice on days or nights off. When they finally got some time off with each other or got home at night after work, they were too exhausted to say or do much. They'd just collapse on the bed and fall asleep in each other's arms, which was fine with them, but they were starting to miss each other. Tonight was different; they made sure to keep their workload light for the past week so they wouldn't be exhausted and they both booked this night off several weeks ago so they could have dinner together and spend some time with each other. Sakura had been looking forward to this night all week and it was the only thing that kept her going lately.

Her current patient had been brought in severely injured after an epic battle had taken place with Sound. She remembered that night clearly.

Several shinobi were brought in half dead and there was only half the staff available, everyone else was either at home or away on break since the hospital hadn't been too busy lately. Sakura fixed up the patients so their lives weren't in danger anymore but wasn't able to completely heal them all at once. This particular patient had strange symptoms and after healing him to perfect condition physically, he was still weak and occasionally coughed up blood. They took many tests but couldn't find anything that was even slightly off with his system. So far, they'd just given him some medicine to help him gain his energy back and control the coughing fits he suffered. She gave him prescription iron pills to keep his blood levels healthy and put him through healing sessions regularly to heal the damage that his body sustained from the strain. The medics on this case couldn't find a cause or source of the problem and all they could do was fix him up every night. Mitsuru's condition seemed to be getting better and they decided to let him out tomorrow and they'd just give him regular appointments to monitor his health along with a few types of medicine to quell the coughing, shaking, and the constant chill in his body.

Sakura knocked on the door quietly so as not to wake him if he happened to be asleep.

"Come in," Mitsurumanaged to croak out.

"Good evening, Mitsuru-kun, how are you feeling?" She asked as she closed the door quietly behind her.

"I've been better, I've been worse."

Sakura smiled. "If things go as planned, you'll be getting out of here tomorrow."

He smiled back and closed his eyes. "I can't wait to go back home."

She placed her hands over his stomach and assessed the damage done throughout the course of the day. Seeing as nothing had changed over the past week, she did her routine healing and wrote her observations on the clipboard beside the bed.

"How are your headaches?" she asked, still scribbling something on the paper before her.

"They're a bit better," he mumbled.

Sakura continued to ask him questions as she scrawled the answers on her clipboard.

"Great, well that's it for now, Mitsuru-kun. I'm sorry to interrupt your evening," Sakura plastered an encouraging smile on her face.

He simply nodded in response.

"Well then, I'll see you tomorrow morning, Goodnight."

"Night, Haruno-san," mumbled sleepily.

Sakura let herself out quietly and made her way back to her office to pack up her things and get ready to go home to Neji. She smiled to herself as she pulled off her white coat and replaced it with her black leather trench coat. Neji had bought it for her birthday, telling her he couldn't wait to peel it off of her later that night.

"_It looks sexy on you," _he had told her in a low voice.

Little known fact about Hyuuga Neji, the human ice cube: he actually talked very dirty in the privacy of their home, which she found impossibly sexy. She intended to keep that bit of information from the public, especially from the prying ears of jealous women who were just waiting for something to happen between Neji and Sakura so they could come in and steal him for themselves. She looked at the clock one final time, it read 6:36. She was expected to be home by 7:30, so she decided to go to the store and buy some fancy wine for their dinner this evening, maybe she'd drop by the Yamanka store too to pick up some flowers.

Sakura walked out the hospital doors with a bit of hop in her step and she got about 2 meters from the building before she heard her name being called.

"Haruno-sama, Haruno-sama!" one of the interns called after her, "Your patient, Mitsuru, he started coughing up blood so we gave him his medication, then he suddenly started vomiting blood mixed in with the bile! Please, come quick."

She didn't need to be told twice as she quickly rushed back into the hospital. She took one of the extra coats from the hook on her way and pulled on her gloves as she entered Mitsuru's room. He was currently hunched over in his bed, throwing up into one of the buckets provided by the nurses.

"Shit," Sakura cursed under her breath. She made her way to him quickly and placed a hand on him stomach to help quell whatever was happening down there. Eventually, he calmed down and lay back down in his bed tiredly, wiping the blood that made its way down his chin.

Sakura put him to sleep using a simple jutsu. "Mai," she called one of the nurses, "Take some of that vomit, put it in a sealed container and drop it off at the lab under my name."

Mai nodded timidly and rushed out of the room.

"Miyuki, take a few blood samples and put it with the vomit samples." The nurses around her quickly jumped to action, following orders as Sakura instructed them. She, in turn, focused her chakra throughout various parts of his body, scanning for anything out of the ordinary that may have caused a problem in the body. Her chakra explored every inch of his body but she froze as she passed over the pulmonary vein. There was something…off about it but she couldn't figure out what it was. Sakura concentrated more chakra to that area. Then she felt it, there was some strange lump there. It wasn't large enough to obstruct the vein or to cause problems with the flow of his blood, it was just _there. _She was about to dismiss it as a mere defect in the forming of the heart when she noticed the blood seemed to change as it passed by that little lump. Sakura couldn't quite figure out what changed about the blood, just that it wasn't the same. She decided to let him sleep peacefully and examine the blood sample she received in the lab. Scanning over his system one more time, she made sure Mitsuru wasn't in pain before extracting her chakra from him and left the room, on her way to the lab. Sakura sighed; this would be a long night.

-

Neji arrived home at 7:00 sharp. He was eager to get home and prepare for his dinner with his wife. This would be the first time they spent some time together in longer than he could remember, save for sleeping at night. He came home very late and Sakura would usually already be asleep by that time because she had to leave early in the morning, before he even got up.

He even went through the trouble of buying her flowers from the Yamanka shop. One wouldn't normally think of this as _trouble, _but when the person at the counter is Konoha's biggest gossip, Ino Yamanka, then it became a troublesome chore. It wasn't everyday that Hyuuga Neji went to the store to buy flowers and Ino had milked him for information and gossip on his recent love life with Sakura. It had taken some time before he could get away from her and finally get home.

Neji peeled his ANBU gear off his person and stepped into the shower, wanting to smell fresh for his date with his beloved. She'd be home in half an hour and by then, he'd have dinner ready and the table set.

7:25 rolled around and still _no Sakura._ Neji looked at the clock impatiently for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past ten minutes; as if constantly checking the time would magically make Sakura appear on the front doorstep. Sakura was usually never late, as she had developed a slight obsession with punctuality; having Kakashi as a sensei seemed to have that effect on a person.

_7:31_

Still no Sakura. He was starting to get mildly worried. What could have happened? As far as he knew, no other teams of ANBU from Sound had arrived that day, so she couldn't have had some emergency surgeries or anything. Neji's Hyuuga pride kept him from picking up the phone and calling the hospital to ask about his wife. Hyuuga's were generally too aloof to be troubled with mundane things such as _worrying for their significant other. _Besides, if anyone had heard of him doing something like that, they might start saying things like, _'Neji is so sweet! He's definitely not as cold as I thought.'_

Or something along those lines, which might affect his career, not to mention his reputation, so he waited.

_8:00, _the clock seemed to be mocking him as the seconds passed by slower with each passing tick.

'_Five more minutes_', he'd keep telling himself.

Giving up, he sighed quietly and blew out the candles. Their food was now cold but he was too disappointed to take the time and put the food away. He went to sit on the couch and just stare at the fireplace that now had a healthy fire crackling within it. After only minutes of sitting and staring dejectedly, a loud knock came from the door. Neji walked to the door and opened it, seeing his childhood friend, Tenten, standing on the other side.

"Hey Neji," she smiled cheerfully, letting herself in.

"Good evening Tenten," he replied politely.

"Lee and I are meeting over at the bar and I thought I'd take you with me. I have a feeling Gai-sensei will be there too, so we're having an impromptu team get-together." Tenten beamed up at her old partner and ex-crush.

Neji was definitely _not _in the mood to go to the bar. It was hard enough to persuade him to go on a regular day, but today he was incredibly disappointed at his ruined date with Sakura.

"I'm sorry, but I can't go today, maybe next time."

"Awh c'mon Neji, don't be like that," the brunette whined. "We haven't seen each other in so long, and you're not doing anything anyway right?"

Great, he just successfully reminded her that he was alone at home, and not with his wife. Neji simply shook his head.

"Neji," Tenten nearly growled. She only used that voice when she was serious. "If you don't come with me I'll have to drag you all the way down there. Now, I know I can't beat you, but I can still put up one hell of a fight, and I'm not sure you or Sakura would appreciate me destroying your house. Now, come _on, _Neji." Tenten reinforced her point by pulling on his arm gently towards the door. He thought about it for a while, but seeing as how he now had a free evening, he might as well go. Tenten brightened up as she pulled a reluctant Neji through the door and towards the bar.

-

"Shit," Sakura cursed under her breath, "Shit, shit, shit, _shit!_" She was incredibly frustrated at her recent discovery. After several tests, she discovered that the lump in Mitsuru's pulmonary vein was actually some kind of poison. How it got there was beyond her. She'd never seen this type of poison before and his symptoms were getting worse by the minute, so by the time she got an antidote ready, he'd be long gone. That doesn't mean she wouldn't try though.

"Shizune," Sakura called for the poison expert, "Could you make an antidote for this poison ASAP?" Sakura's voce was quiet and weary but still held the same urgency.

"Hm, this is a complicated poison; I'm surprised you were able to detect it at all. I'll do my best," The black haired medic replied

Sakura nodded, "Thanks." She continued with her tests to see what she could do to slow the process until they could administer the antidote. She mixed several types of medicine in with the poison but nothing was working. All of it rather worsened the condition or didn't do anything at all. Then she tried a medicine called Immecillicine. This seemed to be the worst of all as it sped up the killing process and irritated several parts of the test rat's system.

"_FUCK!_" Sakura banged her fist on the counter before burying her face in her hands. Immecillicine happened to be the medicine she'd been giving him regularly for the pains and throat problems. _She had been killing her patient._

She raked her fingers through her hair irritably and took a few calming breaths and focused on finding something that would slow down or even reverse the damage. She didn't get very far though.

"Haruno-sama!" one of the nurses burst into the room, panicked. "Mitsuru! He's, he's vomiting blood again and he's frighteningly cold."

Sakura's eyes widened. She dashed past the nurse at speeds only a skilled ninja could hope to achieve as she made her way to her patient's room. She quickly made her way over to him and placed her hands on his stomach, once again calming his stomach muscles and eventually stopped the vomiting. He was still deathly cold so she pushed her almost non-existent chakra through him, hoping to raise his body temperature. The monitor in front of her indicated his unnaturally fast beating of his heart. She couldn't give him any medicine for anything seeing as it would just amplify the damage done by the poison. She was running out of chakra fast, but still tried to send more chakra to his heart to calm it down, while still warming his body.

'_Shizune, please hurry,' _Sakura prayed.

She succeeded in slowing it down, but now it was weak and she couldn't get it back up.

_Beeep._

The ECG machine indicated the lack of a heartbeat. The steady straight line seemed to mock Sakura.

"Get a defibrillator in here, stat!" she barked to one of the nurses. A machine was brought in immediately.

"Charging 200. Clear!" N_othing. _

"250! Clear!" _Still nothing._

"350! Clear!" _Once again…nothing._

"Sakura," Shizune's voice called out, "He's gone."

Sakura shook her head vigorously, "No…No…oh, please no."

The older woman placed a gentle hand on Sakura's shoulder. "I'm sorry."

Sakura's shoulders slumped in defeat, though she was still shaking her head in denial.

She ran the past week in her head over and over, trying to figure out how she could have missed it, or what she could have done differently.

"There's nothing we could have done, the poison was undetectable until it kills the patient."

"I should have seen it…"

"Sakura it's late. I'll take things from here," Shizune's voice was gentle and Sakura was thankful for the comfort.

She nodded her head numbly but remained rooted to her spot, staring at her patient. This man had no one to mourn for him, no one who had come to see him in his time in the hospital. Sakura decided that she'd be the one to mourn his death. She'd be the one to wear her mourning robes and visit his grave occasionally, bringing flowers, pictures, and presents.

"Sakura," Shizune urged her away from the bed.

"Right, thanks." Numbly, Sakura dragged her feet towards her office. She looked the clock absently.

_11:02_

Sakura suddenly remembered, _'Neji!'_

He must have been so mad. They'd both been excited for that night and she ruined it for them. She pulled her coat on and started her trek to her home, he eyes cast downward.

With one last look towards the hospital, Sakura left the building and started walking.

'_I'm sorry, Mitsuru-kun.'_

She opened the door and let herself in, closing it behind her. The first thing she noticed was that there was no other chakra signature present in her home. Was Neji so angry with her that he left for that night? Maybe he just got tired of waiting and went out with his friends instead. Sakura sighed once more and walked to the kitchen to wash her hands.

There on the table was a full meal, roses, and a beautiful candle in the middle. Neji prepared dinner for them and she didn't even call to say she couldn't make it. In the rush of everything, the thought had never crossed her mind and she felt extremely guilty for it. Sadly, Sakura walked over to lean on one of the walls in the hallway. The guilt and the grief became too much. Unable to hold the tears back any longer, she slid to the ground and let the tears fall from her eyes.

'_I killed him.' _She repeated in her head over and over

-

In the end, Neji hadn't been able to enjoy his evening with his old team. His thoughts drifted back to Sakura every five minutes. He knew that she was safe. Tenten had told him that she saw Sakura at the hospital when she went to get some painkillers before coming to his house. Did she forget?

Neji went home earlier than the others, unable to bear with it any longer. He just wanted to go home and sleep. He was tired, both emotionally and physically and he just wanted the day to end.

He walked into his home and felt Sakura's presence. He'd be lying if he said that he wasn't even the slightest bit annoyed and angry with her. They had both been looking forward to this evening for a long time now and she had just ruined it for the both of them. He opened the door silently and made his way to their bedroom, where he assumed Sakura was. Along the way, he saw a figure slumped against the wall. Said figure had pink, tussled hair and was currently burying her face in her knees.

"Sakura," he called, unable to keep some of his annoyance form his voice, but all feelings of displeasure at his wife were wiped away when she looked up at him, tears streaked down her face. He rushed to her side and wrapped his arms around her shaking figure. "What happened?"

Sakura continued to cry as she buried her face in his neck. "I'm sorry, Neji. I'm so sorry." She shook her head and cried harder. "I ruined our night."

"Is that why you are crying?" He had to admit, that was a rather immature reason to be crying.

Sakura shook her head.

"What happened, Sakura?" Neji picked up his wife and carried her to their bedroom, laying her on the bed gently. He helped Sakura out of her clothes and handed her one of his shirts to change into. Sakura remained silent throughout the whole thing as she tried to hold back the tears…and failing miserably. Neji crawled into bed beside her and urged her to lay down as he wrapped an arm around her waist, stroking her hair gently with his other hand.

"Neji I…I killed him…the poison was killing him …and I couldn't get to it sooner. The medicine I gave him just killed him faster and I…I…" Sakura sobbed harder into his chest as he clutched onto his shirt with a white-knuckled grip.

"Shh, Sakura. It's alright. It wasn't your fault." He knew which patient she was talking about for she talked about him and Neji's team had been the ones to bring him back to Konoha. "Orochimaru was well known for his expertise in poisons, you couldn't have known." He continued to whisper soft words of comfort into her hair as he placed gently kisses on her forhead and the top of her head.

"But I _should _have known, I should have seen it sooner. If it was Tsunade-shishou—"

"It would have turned out the same. She chose you as Head Medic for a reason. She would have done the same thing. It wasn't your fault."

"How can you say that?" she whispered, sounding enraged, but the way she clung to him clearly said otherwise. "I personally gave him medicine that killed him." The sobs racked throughout her body once more. Neji did his best to comfort his troubled wife and waited until she fell asleep before he allowed himself to do the same.

Before drifting off, Sakura heard a voice that sounded suspiciously familiar.

"I love you, Sakura," the voice whispered as her husband placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

She smiled slightly into his chest, "Love you too Neji." Sleeping in his arms, she was able to forget the pains of the day. She decided that maybe laying in bed with him was just as good as any normal date, because they were together, and really, that's all that mattered.

-

**A/N:  
**Ummm I don't really like how I ended it, but I couldn't think of how I wanted it to end… sorry if that left you unsatisfied like it did me.

I was _incredibly _tired when I wrote this, I just got the idea and honestly, I was already in bed, but I just haad to get it down before I forgot, so I was too lazy to read through all of it again. So if you notice any grammatical errors, please just let me know and I'll change it right away.

Anyway, thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed (:

Reviews are highly appreciated :D


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